Out West

Ninety Six head of cattle headed west yesterday. 

Joe had them in the barn lot ready to go by Wednesday afternoon. 

He was very worried about a break out.  He double and triple checked the gates and added more staples to the fence.  

I was petty sure they were not planning an escape but you never know.  

The help started rolling in at 7:30 Thursday morning.  I had already done my job, written the health papers, so I headed off to work.  I didn't see the loading and weighing but Joe said everything went like clockwork.  Today we got the conformation that they made it to Nebraska is good shape and they all walked off the trailer.  Now Joe has just a little less to have to feed in the mornings.  
 

Counting Down

I am counting down the days until Draper is due to foal.  It might be in a little over a  month from now.  I got her in the other day to start feeding her fescue free hay.  For the non horse people, there is an endophyte in fescue that can cause thickened placentas, weak foals and no milk. 

She didn't escape the Knot Away treatment.  

Her tail definitely took the longest to unknot.  There is a lot of hair there. 

I don't think she is much of a fan of the new hay yet.  I have moved her into the fat lot.  There hasn't been anything on it since last fall.  So I am sure she is finding some grass that she likes better for now. 

The wind and the rain have retangled her mane and tail. 

And at least she has Hugo across the fence to keep her company.  
 

In Bloom At The 4R’s

I had a pleasant surprise yesterday when I walked up the stairs next to my rock garden. 

Can you see it? 

The crocuses are blooming.

I had wanted to plant more bulbs last fall but my accident put a stop to that.  

Maybe this Spring I can get some more potted ones . 

 

Couponing #89

I may have gotten a little crazy on the Dollar General Clearance Event this weekend.  

I was just wanting the unicorn slumber bags and a few other things.  I had a $2 off $10 birthday coupon that I used Friday and only spent about $1.50.  But then when I went in on Saturday morning for the $5 off $25 things went haywire.  

These are the non coupon items that I mostly paid for; they were half off clearance.  I just couldn't pass up the unicorns.  

These were the things with coupons that all ended up being mostly free.  

The problem was the laundry detergent on Saturday morning.  I had seen where the detergent wasn't ringing up half off but some managers were manually discounting it.  On Friday, my store didn't have any of it pulled off the shelves.  I wasn't even considering trying to get any plus the manager wasn't there anyway.  Then, Saturday morning, the manager was there and pulling buggies full of detergent to put with the clearance.  She had seen where other managers were marking it down so she asked her supervisor who said, "do it."  I ended up getting about $100 of Gain and Tide for $15.  I was also helping the staff try to get the best deals.   I probably could have done better with some planning but I am taking it as a win.  
 

Four Followups

1- I tried the detangler knot away on Otoelene’s  tail yesterday.   This time I misted it slightly so I didn’t have to use as much.   It worked perfectly. 

I got it combed out in half the time with only a fraction on the broken hairs that I usually get. 

2 -  I added three more birds the my flock.  

These two are from the same fabric just different placement on the fabric pattern. 

3 - The stabbed goat will be heading to his new home tomorrow. They are thinking of naming him Spike.

4 - No picture but I had my back check up today.  Everything looked good and I was released from care. I was told to take things slow and maybe hold off on horseback riding for a little longer.  He also recommended that I not run out and start lifting 30+ pounds. So I still won’t be able to help Joe as much as I would like and sadly still  won’t be able to pick up Allie and Sadie for a bit longer. But I can stop wearing the back brace. 

I’m going with 4 follow-up wins! 
 

Finally Framed

Over 50 years ago my two aunts took me, my brother and one sister on vacation to Virginia Beach.  I remember going down the boardwalk and wanting to buy a poster.  My aunt Jean tried to talk me out of it.  But I spent the $5 and bought the poster anyway.  There are tack holes in each corner, but I really don’t remember where in my room that I hung it.   After that it has been rolled up and in the closet.  I finally decided to frame it and hang it up in place of a random picture from Goodwill.

The poster it large, 26 inches by 44 inches.  I ordered the frame online.  When it arrived I was very excited and wanted to put it in the frame right away.  Only the acrylic was broken.  So I waited patiently for another week. 

I love it!  It even has horses!

You can see it has some age on it.

The entire poster is like a Where’s Waldo.  

The more you look the more you see.

The Chinese Laurel and Hardy are a bit unusual. 

There is something for everyone.  I am glad that I finally framed it.

 

Grapevine Globes

This year I decided it was too risky to try to add to my hayfeeder grapevine wreath.  It would have been too much up and down the ladder and I didn't want to take a chance of slowing down my healing.  And with the leftover grapevine from the last couple of years, I had made a couple of smaller door size wreaths. 

So the question was, what to do with all of the grapevine this year.  

I decided on trying to make globes.  

I started with 3 wreaths to make a framework. 

Then just wrapped and wrapped trying to weave some so it would hold together.  

I was running low after making two globes.  But I really wanted a third.  

It is a little more sparce than the others.  Maybe I can supplement it later with some wild grapevine.  But I still think that they look pretty cool. 

 

Pinterest Birding

I have been having birds show up on my Pinterest feed.  

The quilt pattern was free and easy to follow.  There was even a YouTube video on it.
Apparently, it was pretty popular a few years ago.  I am just a little late to the game.  But it was so cute I thought I would give it a try.  

Each bird can have a different personality.  

The legs can go different directions. 

And the beaks can be different sized.  

The wings can also be fussy cut to include whatever pattern you want on the fabric.  

I am having a good time matching fabrics.  But I only have a small flock so far. 

 

Couponing #88, Product Review

My local Dollar General is eliminating the textured hair care section. Apparently, when they decided to dedicate a 4 foot section to it no one bothered to check the census to see that there was probably only 2 people within a 10 mile radius that might have textured hair. 

But I found a different subject to try out some of the products on. 

Hugo was a mess. 

I was keen to see if this leave in knot away might work to make his tail easier to comb out.  The  90% off clearance price was just 62 cents.  Plus there was a cash back offer of $1 off two.  It was a 24 cent splurge but I think it was worth it. 

It took almost no time to get his tail combed out. It will really be worth it if it works as well on Draper’s and Otoelene’s tails.  I went back and bought two more. 

 

Unfortunate Accident

The pictures are not bad but the description of the accident is somewhat gruesome.  You have been warned. 

Joe was feeding the horses and a few cows that are in the same field Thursday.  The goats go almost everywhere but they have started running to the hay when they hear the tractor.  When he is taking the hay to the field the bale is in the front of the tractor on the spear.  He sets it down, turns the tractor around and grabs it with the hay unroller in the back of the tractor.  This time, the goats were trying to get all over the hay.  One of the pet goats, Glitter, was trapped between the bale and the unroller arm.  When Joe opened it up to let her out, he saw one on the other side that was impaled on the spear.  Imagine a goat in the above picture where the X is.  

Joe had to get out and pull the goat off of the spear.  It had gone all of the way through.  He carried it to the barn and called me at work.  He was coming to town a little later and I said if it was still alive to bring it in.  It would be better to have it at the clinic if I needed to euthanize it.  

When he brought it in it was actually quite perky.  The spear had entered at the top of the right flank and exited out the other side.  Checking out the holes, I could tell it had also gone through the rumen.  I had to enlarge the holes on both sides to get to the holes in the rumen to suture those up.  By some miracle I could find nothing else damaged.  

This was one of last years kids that was too small to sell last fall.  I think he was a triplet that I had fed some.  He recovered fine from the anesthesia and I gave him some pain medication and started him on an antibiotic.  

‘

Friday he was up and eating and drinking.  He was still doing well this morning.  He is not out of the woods yet however.  There is a huge risk of peritonitis, (an infection in the abdomen) because of contamination from rumen contents.  And the rumen incisions could still dehisce (come apart).  But for now he is staying in a dog run at the clinic with all the hay and grain he wants.  

I decided that if he lives, I am giving him to the daughter in law of a  coworker that has a few pet goats and would like more.  He could have a good life there.  

 

Snow Day

There was only an inch of snow but it was enough to close Sadie’s school but Allie’s day care was open.  So I volunteered to watch Sadie for the day. After playing with the kitchen, Barbie’s and dollhouse Sadie wanted to play a game. 

I finally found one with all the pieces that didn’t need batteries. 

It said for ages 7 and up but Virginia had told me Sadie liked playing with legos. And she is 4 now.   She loved the game and didn’t need much help. We played 3 times before we had to break for lunch. (Sadie 2, Mimi 1)

Despite the bad weather she still wanted to go feed the animals with PopPop. 

She is always ready to help carry the buckets. 

Lucy and Ricky were a lot bigger since she had last seen them and decided Joe could go in and pour the feed out. 

Sadie has gotten very brave with Molly.  She said Molly likes to sniff her. 

She petted Molly for a long time. 

Then we hiked back to the house for some Unicorn Academy until it was time to go home.